Wall St whacks another powerful female
Lehman Brothers’ (LEH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) ousting of its female CFO, who had been the most powerful woman on Wall Street, exacerbated concerns about why so few women survive in the financial world’s executive suites.
Erin Callan, once considered a contender for Lehman’s CEO job, is neither the first nor the last high-profile executive — male or female — to lose her job as financial firms suffer.
But news that Callan had been demoted prompted groans from several investment managers and researchers who have long bemoaned the small number of women working in finance’s upper echelon. Her role as Lehman’s public face as the investment bank struggled to cope with damage from the credit crisis only increased the impact.
“Someone had to be the fall guy and it is debatable whether she had to be it,” said Matt McCormick, portfolio manager and banking analyst at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Council.
“But Callan was the most public figure to defend the firm, and management clearly wanted to take a prominent step to give a clear signal that change will happen,” he added.
Because so few women work at the top of financial firms, analysts agree that whenever someone loses her job, it is inevitably a bigger story than when a man is cut.
“The attention Erin is getting is because she is a woman in a leadership position not for her work as a chief financial officer,” said Lois Joy, director in research at Catalyst, a nonprofit organization focused on women in the workplace.
Phil Purcell was forced out at Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) but many people remember the big splash when Zoe Cruz was fired by Purcell’s successor, John Mack payday loans application. Chuck Prince made big news by pushing Sallie Krawcheck out as Citigroup’s (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) chief financial officer before he lost his own title as CEO last year.
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